A Time of Storytelling

      It was 125 years ago yesterday, to the day, that the Slovak parish of Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church in the City of Connellsville Pennsylvania was established and the first record noted.  September 19th, 1895 was the date.  This was the second parish in Connellsville, flowing from Immaculate Conception, and was designated for the worship of people of Slovak heritage.  The original church was one block from the present structure, and was a former small Protestant church.  The present structure was built just a few years later, and still serves the people of the area.  Three other Catholic congregations followed Saint John's - the Polish, the Italian and the Hungarian.  Two of them are now closed, and the three in Connellsville that remain, along with the neighboring Saint Aloysius in Dunbar, are now partnered and share the ministry of three priests for the four parishes.  Times have changed, numbers have fluctuated, but the ministry of the gospel continues in the Connellsville area.

     Yesterday the Saint John the Evangelist family celebrated their 125th anniversary with a Mass at 4:00 pm followed by a dinner at a local event location.  With Covid-19, the year long planning was curtailed with limited seating at church, a much reduced attendance at he dinner, masks and all the protocols called for to be safe..

     I served as pastor at Saint John the Evangelist from August of 1984 through October of 1986, my first assignment as a pastor.  I was honored to join the priests of Connellsville in concelebrating the Mass and sharing a few words at the dinner event.

     Saint John is a beautiful community of people who live their faith in an old but beautiful church.  I'm having difficulty downloading the pictures that I have, which is a shame.  As I said, the church is beautiful.

     I mentioned at the dinner that history, as I read recently from one of my favorite authors and historians, David McCullough, is more than a collection of dates and events.  If it is presented in this way, it may be informative but generally it is boring.  History are dates and events that need our storytelling ability, for they do not stand there in isolation, but they are rooted in the fabric of our experience.  The revelation of our experience of that data bring life to the history that we celebrate.

     The stories told of these past 125 years of Saint John the Evangelist Church will strengthen the journey into the next segment of their history.  My stories in my two and a half years at Saint John include the beginning of the stained glass window restoration.  Two of those large windows include unusual scenes and beautiful treasures - the death of Saint Joseph and the Holy Family in a family setting.  Another thing that I am proud of was the creation of a new altar for the Eucharistic celebration.  Borrowing from an altar that I saw, we took the pew ends from the old pews, refinished them, and worked them into the base for the oak altar top.  It turned out wonderfully, and still serves the parish well.  But my greatest memories involve the wonderful people of faith that comprise the parish.  I was blessed by them in abundance.